The Names of the Wicklow men were provided by Dr Ruán
O'Donnell. They directly relate to his recent book titled "The Rebellion in
Wicklow 1798" which contains over 440 pages. It was published by the Irish
Academic Press in Dublin, 1998 ISBN 0 716 526 94 8.

Wicklow was one of the most violent sectors in
Ireland during the Rebellion of 1798 and the most consistently disturbed county
in its aftermath. The pro-government loyalist community suffered the second
highest property losses of any in Ireland in 1798 and remained vulnerable to
rebel activity until 1804. The great struggle of the United Irishmen claimed
hundreds of lives in Wicklow and resulted in the exile of many more to New
South Wales, the West Indies, Prussia and elsewhere - No county sent more of
its natives to the harsh penal colony of New South Wales,
Australia.

At least 14,000 Wicklowmen swore the oath of the United Irishmen
and a comparatively high number of them turned out to fight after the outbreak
of the Rebellion in late May 1798. The vast majority had joined in the spring
and early summer of 1797 when republican emissaries crossed into the county
from Kildare and Dublin.

The United Irishmen were founded in late 1791 in order to unite
'protestant, catholic and dissenter' (presbyterian) in the cause of
parliamentary reform. They wanted to replace the elite Dublin parliament at
College Green with a democratic forum akin to those created by revolutions in
America and France. Social, Political, economic and religious discrimination
against catholics and presbyterians was to be abolished and the British
parliament prevented from interfering in Irish affairs.

Parts of Wicklow were militarised as early as September 1797 and
much of the west of the county was placed under martial law two months later.
By then arms raiding and pike making, the assassination of informers and the
holding of seditious meetings had transformed one of Leinster's most peaceable
counties into a hotbed of republican activity. Dozens of loyalist yeomanry
corps were raised in Wicklow after October 1796 and these civilian volunteers
used their government arms, pay and uniforms to police their neighbours. Some
yeomen were members of the Orange Order from late 1797, a new force in county
politics which proved prone to extreme conduct.

The field structure of the database is:

Surname|First Name|Remarks/Nickname|Native Place

Acknowledgement

I am indebted to Dr Ruán O'Donnell for his help and advice on
records relating to the 1798 Irish Rebellion.